Trump is in China as the Iran war drags on, with energy costs rising and Washington still rejecting Tehran’s latest proposal to end the conflict.
President Donald Trump’s trip to China is unfolding under the weight of a still-unresolved war with Iran, a conflict that has driven up energy costs, strained U.S. diplomacy and left Washington without a clear route to a settlement.
Before leaving Washington on Tuesday, Trump again warned that Iran could face devastating consequences if it does not agree to a deal to end the conflict, according to a New York Times summary of his remarks. He also told reporters that Iran would be part of his discussions with Chinese President Xi Jinping, while downplaying any need for Beijing’s help.
“I don’t think we need any help with Iran,” Trump said Tuesday, according to CNBC. “We’re going to have a long talk about it.”
The war, now in its second month, has become both a foreign policy crisis and a domestic economic problem for Trump. CNBC reported that the S&P 500 has risen 7.3% since Feb. 27, just before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, but that Trump’s approval has fallen as Americans face higher fuel costs and renewed inflation pressure.
Energy markets remain central to the pressure. Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz has disrupted the normal route for about one-fifth of the world’s oil supplies, according to CNBC. Brent crude futures reached $104 a barrel Monday, up 44% since the start of the war, while the average U.S. gasoline price rose to $4.50 a gallon Tuesday, also up 44% from a year earlier, according to AAA figures cited by CNBC. Diesel prices were up 61%.
Amin Nasser, chief executive of Saudi Aramco, warned Monday that if the disruption continues at its current pace, the market would lose about 100 million barrels for each week the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. He said inventories could become “critically low” by summer and that even an immediate reopening would take months to work through the system.
Diplomatic efforts have not produced a breakthrough. Washington and Tehran have been negotiating through mediators in Pakistan, but Trump rejected Iran’s latest counteroffer Sunday as “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!” in a Truth Social post cited by CNBC. The Wall Street Journal, as summarized by CNBC, reported that Iran did not accept U.S. demands on its nuclear program and highly enriched uranium stockpile, instead proposing separate nuclear talks and a shorter enrichment suspension than the 20-year moratorium sought by Washington.
Israel has also signaled that it does not see the conflict as close to finished. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a taped CBS “60 Minutes” interview that the war was “not over,” citing enriched uranium, enrichment sites, ballistic missiles and Iranian-backed proxies as unresolved issues.
The risk of escalation remains part of the backdrop. A New York Times live update summary said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned that the U.S. military could escalate the war “if necessary,” while an Iranian official raised the possibility of increasing nuclear enrichment if Iran were attacked again.
That leaves Trump in China facing two linked tests: whether he can manage talks with Xi while the Iran war dominates the agenda, and whether he can show progress toward ending a conflict that is already feeding through to prices at home. For now, the next signal is likely to come from the president’s meetings in China — and from whether the Strait of Hormuz moves any closer to reopening.
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